Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Around our dining room table

One of the memories I want to leave my children is that of sitting around the table as a family, enjoying food and conversation together. As with seemingly every other aspect of parenting, it turns out that modelling the behaviour you want your children to adopt is the best route to take. So the best way to teach table manners, healthy food attitudes and good conversational skills is to display them on a regular basis.

Part of our weaning strategy (if you can call it that) is having the children sit at the table as part of the family. It feels awkward at first, to try and make conversation with a toddler while still maintaining some semblence of order. Every day we ask the same question and let that lead us into a conversation. "How was your day?"

It feels daft to ask a toddler what they did that day and what their favourite part was. Especially when you then use closed questions to get them to tell you something you already know. "Tell Daddy what you saw in the carpark."

But it's paying off, because now, the three year old is asking us how our day was. And the two year old copies her brother. And we're actually having a conversation.

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About Me

is living the life she always wanted. It hasn't always ended up the way she thought it would, but it's a joyful life!
She's privileged to be a daughter of the King, beloved of the Saviour and empowered by the Spirit. She was fortunate enough to marry the best man she ever met and start living happily ever after. Now she lives in a house sorely in need of a bit of love and cleaning with hubby, four children and two strange and slightly inbred cats. She works as a children's doctor for the NHS and tries to maintain some sort of work-life balance.